Letter to the editor: In with the new

Posted Nov 15, 2017

Have you noticed that our delegates, Representative Scott Tipton and Senator Cory Gardner, out of allegiance to the GOP, are again about to turn again a blind eye to our, the country’s, and the world’s needs now and in the future. They have already turned a blind eye: (1) to science by denying human-caused climate change in order to exploit fossil fuels for profit from global sales at a cost to our and the world’s environment; (2) to peace by approving massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia while Trump dismantles the State Department without any foreign policy; (3) to the environment and our health and safety by approving agency heads who have a history of working against the agencies’ purposes and who won’t fully implement the law; (4) to equality and civil liberties by approving Sessions, a southern racist(?), to head the Department of Justice and by funding an unnecessary Commission to “study” alleged wide-spread voting violations unsupported by fact; (5) to common sense by approving a massive military budget to “modernize” our already fully-functioning and continually-tested nuclear weapons when the use of one nuclear weapon would change the world as we know it and while necessary programs go lacking, and (6) to personal safety by not promoting an already-introduced law calling for an immediate, bipartisan study of ways to thwart future mass murders within the scope of the 2nd Amendment--guns kill more people here than terrorists.

The list goes on and on.We haven’t yet felt the full effect of just these actions. Yet, little by little, by compliance, Tipton and Gardner are working to achieve the right-wing’s goal espoused by Bannon--to deconstruct government. The most recent assault on the future of our country, the needy, the elderly, and working people are the proposed tax plans. The “Paradise Papers” revealed that the wealthiest 1 – 5 percent of the country have sheltered their income overseas to avoid paying taxes.The income total of only five people in our country exceeds that of 50 percent of the rest of the people. Those who are hiding their income are not willing to pay their fair share at a time when our country’s debt is in the trillions. The same goes for corporate income. Will tax cuts change this practice? Should these people and corporations be rewarded for not paying taxes on this already-earned income? Are our delegates promising to close this loophole in the Tax Code? The general answer is “no” to all, but they are disguising this truth with promises of a better future, higher employment, greater opportunity. For whom? For them, not for us.

“Trickle-down” theories were debunked long ago. Studies have proven that corporate tax cuts don’t create jobs--CEO’s get higher salaries and corporate shares increase in value only widening the income gap between management and worker.The tax plans are selfish, self-serving acts proposed by the greedy for the greedy.They are an antiquated throw-back to policies which helped generate the problems that we have today.This throw-back will have even greater consequences in the global market where the whole world is the “oyster” for those people and corporations whose incomes will not be taxed proportionately.Our country’s deficit will balloon and we will pay the price by desperate attempts to offset the debt--losing our public lands to oil and drilling, losing our health care, losing our essential services, having our food and environment polluted with cancer-causing chemicals while the wealthy escape to Paradise.

This is our country. Our vote DOES count--look at the recent recount in VA. Take our delegates to task on promises that can’t work and demand proven methods for positive changes. Corporations and the wealthy need tax incentives, not cuts, to invest in our country and our future through necessary technology that facilitates green, renewable energy and that solves problems (vs. creating new ones such as GMO’s).We want our country to be a leader of the future, not a throw-back for the sake of the powers that were. I know that it seems daunting, but we have to pursue our agenda of democracy one step at a time. Make calls. Write letters. Let our delegates hear your opinion. If they won’t listen, then organize around and support a new, more sympathetic voice--out with the old, in with the new. It’s as early as 2018!!